Its not about it being less manly. Pepper spray does not work for several reasons. (I am assuming you mean to use it against a trained person, otherwise there would be no point, you could just hit them.)

1. By the time you take it out of your pocket, bag, whatever it would be too late against someone trained.

2. They can shield their eyes, its not that hard to avoid it, just close your eyes and turn away.

3. You might cause no damage, or you can burn their eyes off. Not very consistent in intensity.

4. Why are you(general you not a personal you) learning MAs if you are planning on carrying something which was designed for people who cant defend themselves?

5. I would rather invest in a short blabe then pepper spray if i were to carry a weapon.

I carry a little kobotan like device with a pepper spray. i think that it is a pretty good, legal, edge for personal security. my wife has one, I have another device in the car, and 2 big blowers in the house.

it might not be manly, so what? that is totally irrelevant. it can solve my problem, and keep a situation from escalating into lethal violence.

Forget about silly concepts like whether you are acting in a "manly" way or not. Forget about machismo. Use whatever is useful and necessary(and legal) for defending yourself. You should not exclude any potential method simply because your adversary is or is not trained.

1. By the time you take it out of your pocket, bag, whatever it would be too late against someone trained.

maybe, maybe not, I carry mine on my keys, and I find it hard to believe that somebody could get next to me faster than I could use it.

2. They can shield their eyes, its not that hard to avoid it, just close your eyes and turn away.

the trick is to use a mist - a product that puts out a cloud. you aren't only aiming for the eyes you are creating a cloud that, espectially when they are breathing hard, with burn when inhaled.

3. You might cause no damage, or you can burn their eyes off. Not very consistent in intensity.

go for quality and freshness

4. Why are you(general you not a personal you) learning MAs if you are planning on carrying something which was designed for people who cant defend themselves?

life isn't a game, what every gives you an edge, use.

5. I would rather invest in a short blabe then pepper spray if i were to carry a weapon.

that is smart, kill somebody, that is always a great way to start the week. a knife brings the conflict to a lethal stage. don't touch a knife unless you are ready to kill or be killed. all of these idiots who teach and train for non-lethal knfe techniques are just setting themselves up for disaster. don't use a knife, unless you are ready to kill or be killed, and all that entails.

If someone is carrying a gun there is the 21 feet rule (i am not making it up) that i can reach you before you can shoot me from anywhere within that distance. So if i am 5 feet away i can hit a few times before you can withdraw your spray.

I only fight in self defence, therefore if i judged that the situation was serious enough that i would need to use a weapon, whether it be pepper spray or a knife, then i would use a knife because it is more effective and because i would not care about jail as long as i am alive.

The law in the UK is you are not allowed to carry a blade that is longer than 3 inches. So if i defended myself with a short blade i would stand a good chance in the fight and in the court.

I take your point though.I dont carry any sort of weapon anyway.Just my opinion on if i was going to.I agree that if you bring aknife to a fight you are making it very serious, but i would only bring one if it was that serious in the first place.Actually, no, i would probably run if i could.

Whatever you choose to do, have a plan and practice it. Also make sure that what if you do use it, you can deal with the affects yourself. OC powder/mist/foam has a nasty habit of cross contaminating. If you can't handle the stuff yourself, you might want to know that before using it in the street.

Also, timeliness is the most important factor in proper application. The best time to spray is often before the fight becomes physical (which may create some confusion and some legal concerns later, check your local statutes and ordinances on Use of Force & Self Defense). This is because a goal oriented attacker can and often will fight through the affects of OC. He might have trouble seeing clearly but will not likely be incapacitated.

I was going to bring up the same thing Fletch1 did. Make sure you can handle what carrying for cross contamination and check your local statues, because one of you said you would rather invest in a good blade not smart thinking. That could send you jail faster then your attacker if they donít any weapons on them other than fist. But that is just Nevada law, I donít know about yours.